NA TURE 



565 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1895. 



UEBIG. 



Justus I'on Liebig : his Life and Work (1809-73). By 

 W. A. Shenstone, F. I.C. (London : Cassell and Co., 

 Limited, 1895.) 



TO those who hstened — it is now twenty years ago — 

 to the Faraday Lecture given by the late Prof. 

 Hofmann within the walls of the Royal Institution to 

 the Fellows of the Cheinical Society of London, or to 

 those who have since read the report of this eloquent 

 and enthusiastic discourse in the Transactions of the 

 Chemical Society, the task of preparing a new account 

 of the life and labours of Liebig would appear to be a 

 veiy difficult one. 



But to say merely that Mr. Shenstone has succeeded 

 in this difficult task, would be scarcely to do justice to 

 his admirable little volume, which has evidently been 

 very carefully compiled, and which, while it possesses 

 literary charm of its own, gives a clear and, a^ the same 

 time, critical summary of the work and writings of the 

 great chemist, which makes it, for popular reading at 

 all events, preferable to Hofmann's brilliant lecture. Mr. 

 Shenstone is evidently a master of exposition, and if in 

 reading through the pages of his book the scientific man 

 encounters one or two statements or e.xpressions of opinion 

 with which he cannot agree, he will be ready to condone 

 these delinquencies in view of the generally excellent 

 style of the whole. And notwithstanding the remark in 

 the preface, that the object has been "not so much to 

 dwell upon Liebig's private life as to tell what he was, 

 what he did, and why all chemists and all those who 

 are versed in the history of science admire and esteem 

 him so greatly," the book, as a biographical sketch, is 

 superior to the lecture. .As pointed out by the author, 

 it is quite true, and as remarkable as it is true, that few 

 people nowadays, even among students of chemistr)', 

 know much about Liebig's scientific work and his services 

 to the great departments of applied chemistr)' in physi- 

 ology, medicine, and agriculture. Liebig's extract of 

 meat, Liebig's potash bulbs, and Liebig's condenser are 

 the only things which a present-day student can usually 

 recall if asked to give an account of Liebig's work, and 

 these he seems generally to regard as trivial inventions 

 deserving of little remark. Liebig's life, cut short, as 

 one would say in these days of general longevity, at the 

 early age of threescore years and ten, was full of activity. 

 The Royal Society Catalogue of Scientific Papers gives a 

 list of upwards of three hundred papers published by him, 

 of which some five-and-twenty were issued under joint 

 authorship with Wohler, his life-long friend and associate. 

 And the Annalen, which to this day are familiarly re- 

 ferred to as " Liebig's," contain in the first 165 volumes 

 issued during his lifetime all the long array of memoirs 

 which embody the results of the researches of the master 

 and his pupils. 



Up to the age of sixteen, little promise of future 

 greatness was given by the restless boy, at once " the 

 plague of his teachers and the sorrow of his parents," 

 as he was told by the Rector of the Gymnasium. This 

 period of his life, marked chiefly by conflict with his 

 schoolmasters, reminds one of Darwin's early days at 

 NO. 1354, VOL. 52] 



Shrewsbury. And examples of this kind, of which many 

 are now well known, fill one with wonder that the school- 

 master docs not yet recognise the need for greater elasticity 

 in the prevalent system of education. 



The ideal schoolboy is an orderly machine, always 

 obedient, receptive, submissive, ready in the cricket-field, 

 and with real or simulated enthusiasm for football, de- 

 spising all other games, and conservative to the backbone. 

 He is the darling of the master, who sends him home 

 with glowing reports and arms-full of prize-books. It 

 seems never to occur to any one that there may be 

 natures to which the classical languages and history 

 make no appeal, who have not the gift of the mathe- 

 matician, and who do not even care to play at cricket or 

 football. If such appear in a public school they have a 

 bad time of it, dragging out their miserable days at the 

 bottom of the form, regarded as fools by the masters, 

 and as mufl!s by the boys. -And yet among these school 

 failures there may be Liebigs or Darwins, or at any rate 

 there may be, and commonly there is, the material out 

 of which good and useful citizens are made, if only they 

 had a chance to show what they can do. 



It is not surprising that Germany should cherish the 

 memor>- of Liebig, for to his example and influence she 

 undoubtedly owes the development and activity of her 

 chemical schools ; and it is interesting to note the relative 

 progress made by the chief European nations in this 

 direction. In Liebig's youth the supremacy of the 

 English and French chemists was unquestioned, Berzelius 

 alone representing the science in Sweden. It was, as 

 Liebig himself says, "a wretched time for chemistr)' in 

 Germany." 



Since that day' things have greatly changed, the 

 German laboratories have outnumbered those of England 

 and France together, and their output of scientific results 

 has so greatly exceeded the achievements of all other 

 European countries as to have formed a subject of not 

 undeserved reproach to the rest of them. 



.-\t the present time, however, things are not so bad, 

 and there is great hope, from the renewed activity of the 

 universities and technical schools in France and in 

 England, as well as in other parts of Europe and in 

 America during the last few years, that these other 

 countries will in future contribute their full share to the 

 work of experimental investigation and the encourage- 

 ment of scientific education and thought. 



It would be scarcely fair to the author of this " Life " to 

 make any attempt to epitomise it, short and compact as 

 it is. Those who are interested must read the book, and 

 those who read it will certainly be interested. But the 

 estimate formed by the author of the relative value and 

 importance of the several kinds of service rendered by 

 Liebig to the world, seems to be scarcely in agreement with 

 that which is more generally current among chemists 

 and physiologists. First in importance we should place 

 Liebig's work in the domain of organic chemistry. 

 Having shown how to analyse carbon compounds, he led 

 the way in their investigation, and by the introduction of 

 the theory of compound radicles laid the whole foundation 

 of modern organic chemistr)'. Scarcely second in im- 

 portance was the establishment of the system of practical 

 teaching in the laboratory at Giessen, which certainly set 

 an example soon followed by all the universities on the 



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